This invention relates generally to the art of fuel treatment and heating. Various devices exist within the prior art for the treatment and heating of fuels for use in internal combustion engines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,826, to Nomura; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,628,889 and 4,834,053, to Van Der Ploeg; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,078,115 and 5,275,146, to Yamashita, each disclose using a PTC (positive thermal conductivity) material to heat an air-fuel mixture in some way. Typically, they involve heating the mixture when it is in the carburetor or intake manifold and use some kind of thermostat-type switching, which if it fails can cause overheating and/or an explosive combustion of the fuel.
Diesel fuel, in particular, requires substantial treatment in order to prevent contaminants or adverse weather conditions from effecting the combustion process.
While it has been known to use of coolant from a vehicle's cooling system to heat the diesel fuel, as described in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,992, this process has not solved all the problems associated with adverse temperature conditions. In particular, such a method does not work when cold-starting a vehicle and it is commonly known that it can be extremely hard to cold-start a diesel engine without warming the fuel and the engine first. However, again, it is also known that if too much heat is applied in the warming process, besides the fact that because fuel is a combustible material which if over-heated could cause the vehicle to possibly explode, the pressure of the heated fuel may also rise to a level that may cause fuel lines to rupture, further increasing the chance of explosion.
Thus, because these problems need to be solved, there is room for improvement within the art.